Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017
The GPG Regulations came into force on 6 April 2017. They apply to large private and voluntary sector employers (defined as those with 250 or more employees on 5 April of each year).
Because of the Regulations, employers now have to publish the gap in pay between men and women on both a median basis (pay per hour based on the person ‘in the middle’ of the distribution of pay) and a mean basis (average hourly salary).
In addition, employers are required to disclose the distribution of gender by pay by splitting the workforce into four groups based on their pay, and showing the proportion of men and women in each group. Employers are also required to disclose percentages of staff receiving bonuses by gender and the gender gap on bonuses.
The mean gap for all full-time men and women in 2016 was 13.9%, according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The figure for all men and women – also known as the aggregate and including the 42% of working women in part-time work, which is lower paid by the hour – is 18.1%.
There is currently no requirement to show the pay gap between white and BME employees: according to a 2016 study of ONS Labour Force Surveys, found the pay gap between black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers with degrees and white graduates is 10.3%.
BME women are the worst off: In their 2017 analysis of the gender pay by ethnicity, the Fawcett Society revealed the following inequalities:
· Black African women have seen virtually no progress since the 1990s in closing the gender pay gap with White British men, with a full-time pay gap of 21.4% in the 1990s and 19.6% today.
· Pakistani and Bangladeshi women experience the largest gender pay gap at 26.2%.
· Indian women experience the biggest pay gap with men in their ethnic group at 16.1%.
So the first gender pay gap reports under the Regulations need to be published by 30 March 2018 for public sector employers and 4 April 2018 for private sector employers at the latest. Thereafter, they must produce and publish an annual report.
Special rules apply to the public sector and there are specific regulations which govern public sector reporting: The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (SDPA Regulations) were made on 9 March 2017 and came into force on 31 March 2017.
They impose substantially similar reporting obligations for public sector employers as for private and voluntary sector employers, with the following main differences:
· The "snapshot date" for public bodies is 31 March, rather than 5 April, and so the first gender pay gap reports under the SDPA Regulations need to be published by 30 March 2018.
· Public sector employers subject to the SDPA Regulations are not required to prepare a written statement.
· However, the SDPA Regulations impose a further reporting duty on affected public sector employers that obliges them to publish information demonstrating compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty. This information is to be published by 30 March 2018 and then every four years thereafter. Public authorities must publish one or more objectives that will work towards achieving any of the three core objectives of the Public Sector Equality Duty. The objectives must be specific and measurable and published in a manner that is accessible to the public.
Heather Platt
5 February 2018